Jiggy, this is a people's coin afterall. What I think Othe meant is if majority of the community disagrees with the inflation, then the majority vote is what is going to be used to decide what will be done or not. This is how it was done when deciding the n-factor for vertcoin. Although, this is not set in stone yet. Hopefully, the community can come to some sort of agreement. =)
The development team are here to stay and no one has left. They do what they do best and that is development. Also, please note that the development team native language is not English and it can come out in a wrong way. But, I assure you, that is not the case.